Visiting Pisa en route to Lucca

Has anyone done this and is an afternoon long enough to see Pisa?

Not if you want to:

• see the Tower
• enter all the buildings in the Square where the tower is
• take a look at the famous fresco in the ancient cemetery
• take a walk along the Arno river

and so on... www.turismo.pisa.it/en/places . In short, it depends on your interests.

Note that You could stop in Pisa to "tick the Tower off the list" on the way from Florence to the Cinque Terre. Where, I bet, any concierge has a cousin who would be happy to carry your stuff up and down the steps. Otherwise, if you don't trust cousins you could stay in Monterosso.

Hello mosesrus,

My reaction is this is possible but I don't think it's advisable. Rather than visit Pisa with luggage in tow after a long train ride. I would advocate for going to Lucca, checking into your hotel and seeing Lucca that afternoon and evening and taking the short 30 minute trip to see Pisa on your own schedule.

If you really wanted to see Pisa that day you could take the train back to Pisa depending on the time. You can easily catch a train to La Spezia from Pisa (or vice versa) so you could visit it on the way to or from CT if you wanted to combine a day trip.

Whatever you decide, enjoy,
=Tod

I agree with the other replies. Just use Lucca as your base, see Lucca the day you arrive, Pisa one day, some 5T the next.

We did just that last October. We stored our luggage at the Pisa train station’s Left Luggage counter (far end of the station after we got off the train - long, slow line to get up to the counter, no Service with a Smile but it functioned), then caught the bus out front to reach the Field of Miracles.

He afternoon was plenty of time to stroll the site, go around and inside the Baptistry and hear the acoustics demonstration, take a lengthy to eb side the aceneyery and see the long walls of frescoes (it was a bigger draw than the leaning tower for a long time), go inside the cathedral, and walk up to the Tower. We didn’t join the line to climb the tower, and got the bus back to the train station. We had a nice view of the Arno from the bus, coming and going. To “see” more of Pisa would’ve required spending one or more nights, but the afternoon was sufficient for the highlights.

We got to Lucca in the very late afternoon/very early evening, and stayed there 3 nights.

Change of plans! Now staying in Lucca four nights after arriving by train from Rome in afternoon.
We plan to take train(s) to Lucca and go to Pisa one morning from there for a day trip.

A couple of questions:
We will likely make train reservations about 30 days in advance, is this good?

I thought we would take Leonardo Express from FCO to Rome Termini Station late morning after 9:10 a.m. arrival from US and then on to Lucca, likely with change over in Florence. I see also we can book a train from FCO to Lucca with changes in Florence. Do those options utilize Leonardo Express as part of the reservation?

We plan to make a day trip or two to Cinque Terre, but do not plan to hike. We understand that we would take a train(s) from Lucca to Viareggio and through La Spezia to connect to trains running to all five cities. There also is a water ferry service available between some of the cities?
Is there a daily pass we can buy for the trains and/or water ferries to travel between the cities?

Can we see all five cities comfortably in a long day tip or should we plan two trips to Cinque Terre?
Is there another suggested place for us to visit along the coast?